BEWARE, NOW THAT YOU HAVE LEFT YOUR HOMES

So said the Breezes addressing those departing,

“To search for the long departed is certainly a futile effort,

for who has ever found the traces of the long departed!

you, who wander about the darkness

carrying shimmering lamps in your eyes,

youl tell us,

has anything ever sprouted from dead earth!”

Ruined by an eternally secure nature,

paths of imagination tell tales,

of the precious footsteps of the long departed,

arouse hopes of union;

mingling with the verdant smell of roselike bodies,

by the living knock of their quiet rustlings.

Were you to ask about the abodes

of those passionate faces, questioning eyes;

Those paths of imagination peer at you

as though words:

have been severed from their meanings

and utterances:

have clustered in the ambiguous whirlwind of anonymity.

So said the journeys addressing those departing,

“Travel is an ocean of trials and afflictions.

It is entirely a whirlpool.

The gait of the long departed is

nothing more than the vagaries of desert winds,

unaware of its waystations,

It is a mirage;

More credible than clear vision.

Every spectacle is a tunic of perishing colours, as

failures and dreams go hand in hand”

So said the Stars, addressing those departing

“But the longing to rekindle previous friendship

Is the path to union

The new word derives vitality from the

reappearance of timeworn letters.

Beware, now that you have left your homes,

Stasis is:

decadence, demise of existence,

Quest is

eternal fire of eyes,

The path to the unseen destination

is illumined by those who have long departed.”

(Translated by Farooq Hamid)